Honest Questions for Eric Holder

While being interviewed recently by ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Attorney General Eric Holder expressed his belief that he and Barack Obama have been subjected to a measure of “vehemence” unlike that with which other public figures have had to reckon.

Anyone who’s been alive for more than a few years doesn’t need this spelled out for them, but Holder couldn’t resist the impulse to make explicit the point at which he’s always driving: For Obama’s and Holder’s critics who are always “talking about taking their country back,” there is “a certain racial component,” “a racial animus,” that animates them.

To put it more bluntly, Holder is accusing his opponents of being a bunch of “racists.”

Of course, no one should be in the least bit surprised by this. Holder, like his boss, has always been a “Johnny One-Note” when it comes to the issue of race. But rather than go on the defensive, as whites generally and white conservatives always do, let us instead pose some questions to the AG.

First, by “racial animus” you presumably mean “racism.” But what does this mean, Mr. Holder? In spite of—or maybe because of—the ease with this term is hurled about, “racism” has come to mean all things to all people: Adolph Hitler, Nazis, Klansmen, Republicans, conservatives, libertarians, John Wayne, Southerners, Germans, American police officers and military personnel, slave masters and abolitionists, the Union and the Confederacy, America’s Founders, elderly whites, middle class whites, our judicial system, our political arrangements, academia, Hollywood, “the media,” and so forth and so on, have all been accused of “racism.”

However, as we say, if everyone is “racist,” then no one is “racist.” Or, if you will, if “racism” means anything and everything, then it means nothing.

Yet maybe, Mr. Holder, by “racist” you have in mind simply someone who dislikes black people, like yourself and the President, simply and solely because they are black. Given the context of your comments, I suspect that this is probably your meaning.

The unanimously acknowledged “father” of modern philosophy, Rene Descartes, identified as an axiom of reason the proposition that “something can’t come from nothing.” And since, sir, you and those of your ilk are forever looking for “root causes” whenever it comes to accounting for the dysfunctional conduct of which America’s “ghettoes” are ridden, I am inclined to think that you too believe it is self-evident that from nothing, nothing comes.

So, if, as you’re so certain, your critics dislike you and Mr. Obama only because you both are black, answer me this: From whence springs this sentiment of theirs? Why would anyone, white or otherwise, dislike black people? In other words, what are the “root causes” of white “racism?”

Bear in mind, sir, that the stock replies—“That’s just how white ‘racists’ were raised;” “Whites entertain ‘racist’ stereotypes about blacks,” etc.—are alike viciously question-begging (to say nothing of sounding “stereotypical” themselves). Each in its own way simply rephrases the claim that whites are “racist.”

And if you resolve, Mr. Attorney General, to concede that some of these negative “stereotypes” about blacks do indeed have a basis in reality but are nevertheless a “legacy” of white “racism,” please note that, once more, you beg the question by restating your original assertion: whites are/were “racist.”

It’s ok, though, if you can’t answer this query Mr. Holder. If I was a betting man I’d bet my house that never, ever have you had to give it any thought at all. Of real logical axioms like that identified by Descartes’ I’m sure you couldn’t care less. What you do care about, however, and care about more than anything else, is the proposition that whites are “racists” and blacks are unqualified victims. This you treat as a first principle of reason.

And this brings me to my next question: It’s true, isn’t it Mr. Holder, that you like crying “racism” precisely because blacks are widely portrayed (by people like yourself) as victims?

Contrary to what many of your critics claim, I for one most definitely do not believe that you charge them with “racism” simply and solely for the purpose of immunizing yourself and the President against criticism (though this certainly is a consideration some of the time). I believe that you work long and hard at convincing yourself that the two of you—the two most powerful human beings on the planet, mind you—really are victims of “racism.”

To put it another way, your charges of “racism” are not just politically motivated, are they? Ideologically and even psychologically, you and Mr. Obama—children of “privilege,” the two of you—need to believe that you are both “authentically black”—i.e. “oppressed”—and “down with the struggle”—i.e. “oppressed.”

Your interests are served well by the perception that you and Mr. Obama are unpopular because of your skin pigmentation, aren’t they Mr. Holder?

The problem, however, is that this lie in which you and Obama have invested your whole being is a great disservice to the interests of the rest of us—regardless of our skin color.

One big reason people like Holder still holler racism is that like all leftists, failure of a large pct. of a Dem constituency can never be traced to the individual ….no, it must always be some outside force, racists, who still have their hobnailed boots on the throats of whatever Dem constituency is screaming racism. They call critics of Islam racists as well….even though the correct accusatory term would be bigotry.

But leftists, like Obama and Holder, just can’t let go of the well-worn trope of racist whites holding down (no pun intended) oppressed Blacks. It has worked too well for them in the past, and acknowledging that the great pct. of Americans are to blame for their own problems would knock down on of the pillars of American leftist ideology. Dem constituents can never be guilty of failure by their own efforts. This was all predicted by a number of conservatives when King Barack was elected. No criticism of him or his flunkies was to be allowed.

objectivefactsmatter

That’s correct. That’s the magic of collectivism. Whoever can muster better narratives for the class is supposed to win. That allows you to ignore just about everything but “disparate outcome” and then blame “the system” because people have not managed to become “equal” in the way that they just expect to happen. According to Marx and others.

American Patriot

The president is mixed-race. He is half-black and half-white. The left is obsessed with the “one drop rule” that was the product of Jim Crow segregation. Anyway, the left ignores all of its racist animosity directed against black conservatives (like Herman Cain and Tim Scott) and other conservative minorities.

Larry Larkin

I’ve got another question for Holder. “How much did you get for Marc Rich’s pre-emptive pardon, and where is it?”

Christopher Riddle

EXCELLENT,You”RACIST”!!(only kidding)

Steve

I guess the same amount Boyden Gray got for George Bush Sr.’s pardon of the Iran-Contra 6. Duh.

WhiteHunter

We’ll never know how much Holder got; but we do know what Clinton got from Rich’s ex-wife, Denise, for issuing the pardon, and that Holder was the one who negotiated it: a Bravo Juliet.

So you see, Holder is a man of many talents: When he’s not running guns to the cartels, threatening the Tea Party, or orchestrating a coverup, he’s got all of the qualifications to run a stable of ho’s in the ‘hood. Bet he keeps a wide-brim leather hat with an ostrich feather in his office closet, and if he’d ever smile, we’d see that gold front tooth, too.

tagalog

It’s really a little more simple than all that. A common lament of black Americans is to say “I am being treated badly because I’m black.” It’s common because it’s a very handy way of doing something that is universally human, shared by all people, namely, diverting attention from one’s real shortcomings and claiming that the accuser is the one in the wrong. The benefit to the person who employs this tactic? It avoids the necessity to confront one’s own failures as a person and at the same time accuses the accuser and permits the individual to feel better about himself, as the successfully diverted accuser now rushes to say “I’m not racist.”

Sheik Yerbouti

The thing is, they ARE being treated badly because they are black. Why? Because they caused it. When they live up to the worst stereotypes consistently for decades, how can it possibly be a shock to them that others might treat them cautiously? Or avoid them entirely?

Many of them don’t have the sense to keep their racist views and illegal activities off of Facebook or Twitter. Even David Duke is more careful!

tagalog

I agree with you but I was trying to avoid pointing that out. Once the members of some group begin trading on group stereotypes, they are obviously asking for others to respond to them not as individuals but as members of the group. That’s why it’s white people who make all the references to MLK’s famous statement that he looked forward to the day when his daughter would be judged by the content of her character and not by the color of her skin. Too many black Americans don’t think that way anymore; it doesn’t pay off. Thinking like MLK said means you have to be personally responsible. Why do that when so many are leaping into the breach to make excuses for you?

I don’t entertain name-calling types for very long. I said nothing rac|st at all. I realize the idea of responsibility is something you don’t think applies in this case, but that’s the core of many black problems. It’s always someone else’s fault when they fail to hit the mark.

Schools are shifting to a “No F’s” policy and they are doing it specifically to accommodate black students. That’s not rac|st. That’s a fact. No race is doing so badly in school.

As the Hispanic population continues to dwarf the percentage of black Americans (with a good deal of help from Obama) you will see a shift in the claims of rac|sm. Hispanic and Asian people have no guilt about black people or slavery or Jim Crow. It’s that white guilt and altruism that blacks are going to miss as demographics shift and the issues of blacks are marginalized to the back pages while Hispanic people become political leaders in the US.

I realize some of this must be damned hard to hear for some black Americans. Being able to blame it on slavery for so long is paying diminishing returns. The current generation of young white adults are asking why they owe for things they didn’t do. The people most black Americans hate are mostly dead and gone now. Most are hating ghosts (but taking it out on innocent modern day white Americans who clearly did nothing.

Holder made a mistake with the Black Panthers. He should have at least given them a wrist slap. Doing absolutely nothing made him look bad. Calling everyone who doesn’t agree with him a “rac|st” is disgusting. Americans want debate, not dictate.

Steve

You’re a clown. Obama has great support among Asians and Hispanics and that’s what scares you. Retributive justice. The notion that when people of color become the majority in America that they will treat whites the way whites treated them. Looking at it from that vantage point, I’d be scared too.

Sheik Yerbouti

Right out the gate with the childish name calling. Must you live up to so many leftist stereotypes? Yes, I admit I fear what I see happening. Why? Because the people being imported to pack voting roles come from places where the government barely works at all.

What’s interesting is that you focus on payback for white Americans instead of watching your nation become marginalized and maybe even Balkanized. The reason the payback issue doesn’t bother me is because that’s the realm of defeatist thinking. People with hope for the future don’t go dredging up antiques as proof of why they have failures along the way.

Easier to blame it on what? Slavery? Jim Crow? Or everyone you can see that can be called “white”? Grow up already. We all make our own bed.

Guest

What name calling?

http://oddhammer.com/tutorials/debt_clock/US_debt_clock_dynamic.swf John Barleycorn

I bet you never heard that phrase come out of a black person’s mouth. I bet you’ve never had a meaningful relationship with a black or even an intimate conversation with one. You just hurl baseless strawmen to rationalize your sick hatred.

tagalog

Actually, I have heard those words come out of a black person’s mouth. In fact, I’ve heard it come out of the mouths of SEVERAL black persons at different times and in widely different places. Those instances don’t count the innumerable times people like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or others of their ilk have publicly said that; I’m just talking about people I actually was talking to or personally overheard.

I’ve worked as a nurses’ aide in a country hospital where more than half of the staff were black people, and did so for a little more than 8 years. During that time, the majority of my charge nurses and head nurses were black people (exclusively black women, I might add). I’ve partied with black people and had many meaningful relationships with black people. As to INTIMATE conversations, I’ll keep that issue to myself.

Larry L. Smith

Hey, Uptown! I see you dropped the ‘Uptown’ tag, but I also see that you’re still in the business of projecting your own faults onto others…

Rick

Holder and Obama have done more to destroy America than anyone in my memory, but what’s worse is they have also caused more racial tension and turned back the clock on the advances made by MLK, JFK, and many others in the advancement of Africans, Latinos, Asians and other minorities in this country by creating animosity and fear through their government actions and inactions.

Yet he is most confortable turning these facts around and claiming racism toward himself and Obama.

I’m old enough to remember when there was such a thing a white privilege, segregated schools, restrooms, water fountains and even a separate
Sears Roebuck floor and a 3rd balcony in movie theaters reserved for
“coloreds”. I also lived near Greensboro NC during the infamous Woolworth’s lunch counter event.

During the years to follow, due in no small part to MLK, JFK, RFK and others, many great strides were made to bring treatment of the races closer together. I’ve seen hatred converted to tolerance, then mutual acceptance, then finally to mutual respect and friendships, but Holder’s acusations seem to be aimed at destroying that progress.

Steve

This is absolute nonsense. We black Americans knew that the election of the first black President and the appointment of the first black Attorney General would be a two edged sword. On one hand it signaled a great achievement given this nation’s sordid history on race. On the other hand it has provoked the remaining racist element into hysterical fits of rage and inveterate opposition. America has come a long way on race but there are still too many white Americans who refuse to accept blacks in positions of authority and reach for any pathetic reason to justify it.

WhiteHunter

Well, Steve, what do you think of, say, Col. Allen West and Dr. Ben Carson–both of whom would get my (white) vote in a heartbeat? And BTW, I’d trust Charles Payne–the brilliant, articulate (black) financial analyst on Fox News–to manage my portfolio any day, if he’d be willing to take me on as a new client.

I’ll bet that, to you, they’re “Toms” or “Oreos.” Am I right? Of course, being a “racist,” the only kind of black candidate I’d vote for, or trust my money to, would be a “Tom” or an “Oreo” or a “race traitor ‘acting white,'” Right?

Steve

You show your racism right here. Why would you vote for West, a disgraced Army officer who couldn’t even hold his House seat, or Carson. a physician who never held any elective office? You are PATRONIZING them simply because they are two of the few blacks who dance to your ideology.

MukeNecca

“You show your racism right here.”

Where ?

Steve

Read my post again. Slowly. From left to right. And ask yourself. If Carson and West were white, with the same resumes, would “WhiteHunter” or anyone else be promoting them as Presidential material?

http://oddhammer.com/tutorials/debt_clock/US_debt_clock_dynamic.swf John Barleycorn

…“would “WhiteHunter” or anyone else be promoting them as Presidential material?”

I can’t speak for WhiteHunter, but I am being sufficiently “anyone else” to say “ABSOLUTELY YES!”
Mind you, I know of quite a few million of people who voted for America Enemy Number One Barack O’Bimbo – TWICE!!!

American Patriot

Obama is a mixed-race president. He is half-black and half-white. Anyway, in Zimbabwe, there are too many black Zimbabweans from the racist and Communist ZANU hate party who refuse to accept whites in positions of authority and reach for any pathetic reason to justify it. There is only one white member of the Zimbabwean government’s legislature and he is subjected to racial slurs from his fellow lawmakers. Why don’t you condemn that, Elijah Muhammad II?

justdoit

Are you blind to the reality of what’s going on in this Country?

tagalog

Where does the hysteria lie when our President blames every bad turn his administration takes on Republicans? How about when our Attorney General tells us we’re too cowardly to have a REAL debate about race in this country, and then does nothing to spur such a debate? How about when he fails to enforce the laws of our nation by exercising what he calls “prosecutorial discretion?”

Dyer’s Eve

Never liked the look of him. He looks like the sort of person that would molest your kids.

Habbgun

The irony being of course that the ideas that the Left have are exclusively white and European. It is all a bait and switch. Admit Europeans ideas are superior then you will admit Europeans are superior. Is it any accident Obama’s mother is a white leftist? That his grandfather is a white leftist? Does anyone really think the Left wants another Obama or someone who looks racially like them?

Why doesn’t anyone ever stand up to Leftism as the racial scam that it is? If Marxism came out of Asia or Africa or South America would it even be known of today?

Cappy1437

Holder is not a real anything except a liar. He hides behind a facade of political power. He will go down in history as the worst attorney general ever.

JR Kipling

He who wins the war writes the history book. In the America of 2050 there might be Holder statues everywhere. In fact I guarantee that blacks will start naming streets after him within the next year. Wanna bet?

nomoretraitors

Asking Holder honest questions is an exercise in futility, as he is the most dishonest and corrupt attorney general in US history

claspur

All you need to do is listen to what comes out of his mouth, and watch his eyes, and ‘hammer him’ in-testimony…. and when he pulls that “Race Card’ out, you shout him down, calling a Black Bigot, shut-up!, and just answer the questions, sir.
He’s a liar. Nap time again.

bob e

screw this black asspile .. he’s barry o’fraud’s gestapo. probably making a hefty
buck dealing drugs with his mexican bandito pals from fast & furious ..
we need more black politicians in this country .. don’t we. they all work out so well ..

Steve

No racism here, huh?

Webb

What raciss be, anyhow?

Webb

Is you pure black Steve, er tainted? Or do you consider yosef a tainted white man? Maybe what we’re talkin bout here is de Tainteds vs de Purebreds? So den am de Purebreds always de raciss? It’s durn confusin ter me. Dat’s why I likes ter listen tuh the good Rev. James Manning on dese raciss issues tuday.

JR Kipling

I have a question. Are you a real blonde? Or will only your hairdresser know for sure? Thanks.

Christopher Riddle

Eric”The Red”can’t spell the word”HONEST”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steve

The main problem with this foolish rant by Kerwick is that Holder never made a reference to “white people”. He is talking about RACISTS who make baseless and incessant charges of “corruption” and “incompetence” against two highly competent and honest black government officials simply because they won’t accept their right to hold their positions.

WhiteHunter

Right, Steve. By Holder’s and Obama’s definition, anybody who objects to their corruption and crimes is, ipso facto, a “racist,” because–of course!–“racism” is the only possible motive for anyone to object to their corruption and crimes; there’s no other possible explanation. Q.E.D.

And there’s a corollary: Since Obama received between 95% and 98% of the black vote both times, and a much smaller percentage of the white vote, obviously the white voters were motivated by “racism” in not voting for him, and not by any objection they might have had to his incompetence, corruption, and appointment of criminals like Holder to positions of power.

It’s all very simple, isn’t it, Steve? As in the saying, “When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail,” Obama’s and Holder’s equivalent is, “When the only slander you can hurl at someone who disagrees with you or criticizes your policies and acts is to accuse him of “racism,” everybody who doesn’t vote for Obama is a “racist.”

Any questions?

Webb

Dat sho nuff nails Hussein and Himpton right on top dey wooly ol heads. Dey raciss thru an thru! Should be sittin in de jailhouse wit all dem others.

tagalog

You’re picking on him because he’s black.

Steve

It really is pretty simple. Blacks vote democratic at about 90% for obvious reasons. Jews vote democratic at over 70% as do Asians and Hispanics. Obama received about 43% of the white vote so obvious not all whites are motivated by racism. But those whites, LIKE YOU, who incessantly scream “Incompetence” and “corruption” with no corroborating evidence to support the charges are reaching for rationale for your racism.

http://oddhammer.com/tutorials/debt_clock/US_debt_clock_dynamic.swf John Barleycorn

CRIMINALS FOREVER MORE .

DontMessWithAmerica

Aside of being a genuine, first class, proven racist himself he reminds me of the old story about the black youngster who went for an audition for a radio announcer. When he returned and his mother asked how he made out he said, “Well, I, I, I, f-f-found th-the s-s-studio an-and th-th-they g-g-gave me a script and I r-r-read it and, well, a-a-a black k-kid ain’t got a chance.”

http://frontlineofdefense.com j.veritas

we need to impeach Obama, not worried about being called “racists” and then bring Holder up on felony charges. If blacks are willing to call for impeachment of the first black president,then so can we. see herehttp://www.frontlineofdefense.com/culture-watch

So, proportionately, I have to be in a room with 96 African-Americans before I can find one who does not support Øbama. And I AM THE RACIST???

DontMessWithAmerica

It would be interesting to learn what number of blacks are in DOJ and what percentage they represent in that department. Nationally about 3% of lawyers are black and 86% are white. Of the four top men running the DOJ 3 of them, 75% are black. Now Nationally about 12% of the population in America is black but over 50% of the crime is perpetrated by blacks. These represent some worrisome figures.